See You Next Fall!

Hey Thunderbolts!

Awesome laserporting on Monday! It seems having unlimited shots helps increase your score... A LOT! It was fun to run around with you all one more time.

It was an honor to be your coach this year. You are all wonderful young ladies. It has been a pleasure to see you all grow up and become incredible soccer players. Thank you for giving me a chance to try being the head coach.

I'd like to thank the parents. Without you raising such great people, coaching would be a lot harder. Getting to practices every Tuesday and Thursday and games 45 minutes early (it made a difference!) for warm-ups isn't always easy. And thank you for bringing snacks, taking a turn at lines-person, and all the other things that come along with being a soccer parent.

Finally, I want to thank Coach Mike and Coach Mary. Without their support through the season I couldn't have done it. You guys rock!

In the end, it was a great excuse to play some soccer and watch some exciting games every Saturday. I hope you all had as much fun as I did.

See you next year!

Best,

Coach David

ThunderPartay!!!

Thunderbolts!! This Saturday is our last game and to celebrate an awesome season we're going to party at Laserport.

It will be $16.95/person for a package deal which includes pizza, drinks and two laser tag games

See you there!

When:
Next Monday, November 10th at 5:30PM

Where:
Laserport

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Thunderbolts Win!!!

Good ball control, aggressive play, and a great goal by Carissa against a pretty evenly match team lead to a 1-0 victory this Saturday.

We've only got one game left. It has been an awesome season so far, I'd love to go out with a "W." But no matter what I'm extremely proud of the way we played and I am grateful for the opportunity to be your coach.

—Coach David

Thanks Thunder-dults!

Thunderbolts!

Thanks to all the Thunder-adults who came out for last night's parent-daughter game. Apologies to those who couldn't make it. I didn't give a lot of notice.

Also, with weather concerns, limited daylight, and expiring field permits I felt it was best to stop practices for the rest of the season. I will miss our warm-ups and scrimmages but we've got two more games left to savor.

—Coach David

Parent-Daughter Game This Tuesday!

Thunderbolts!

Hope you had a beautiful weekend. We had a tough game on Saturday. Some great work offensively led to an awesome goal by Kelsey but the Oz held us to just one goal. I'm proud of the way you all played your hearts out, including a lot of extra playing time.

Tomorrow we will have the annual parent-daughter soccer game. We'll start at 6PM and go until we can't see the ball anymore. Hope to see you there!

—Coach David

No Practice Thursday, Game at 10:30AM Saturday

Thunderbolts!

Because of conferences at Whitford and a trip to San Francisco for me, we won't have practice this Thursday. I'll see you all Saturday! Be at the pitch at 9:45AM for warm-ups.

—Coach David

Leaving it All on the Field

Hey Thunderbolts!

We left it all on the field this Saturday in what was an exciting yet tough game. We took a lot of shots, played some great defense and gave it 100%.

In the end, I think everyone had fun. That is all I ask for.

—Coach David

Another Exciting Game

Hey Thunderbolts!

Great game on Saturday. We seemed a little sluggish in the first half but came alive in the second half. The Gators were a tough team and a couple goals early on set us back on our heels. I am proud of the fact that we didn't give up. You all kept fighting until the last whistle blew.

In the end, that is all I ask for. 100% for 70 minutes. See you at practice tomorrow night.

Thanks,

Coach David

Game Tomorrow! Ridgewood Elementary

See you all at the game tomorrow at Noon. We will be playing at Ridgewood Elementary. Please be at the field at 11:15AM for warmups.

—Coach David

Practices and Rain

Thunderbolts!

Great practice on Thursday! Thanks for braving the weather and coming out. When I got to the field I was regretting not canceling practice. But as we took the field the clouds parted and the rain stopped. We got a little wet but overall it was a great night to be out on the field. Thanks to Terry and Amy for staying until all the parents got there while I sprinted off to my game (by the way we won 3-2).

As far as the weather goes, I will make it a point to check the forecast from now on. In general, unless it is absolutely horrible I intend on holding practices in the rain. Make sure you bring a rain jacket and under armor/long shirt to go underneath your jersey.

I will send out a cancellation notice if I feel it is going to be too gross for soccer but it is best probably to assume practices will happen unless otherwise indicated.

Thanks!

Coach David

Babe Ruth: Failure!

Do you know who Babe Ruth is? He was a pitcher for the Red Sox and Yankees and he led the American League in strikeouts for 1918, 1923, 1924, 1927, and 1928. 

Oh, and he is also ranked number 3 on the all-time home run list with 714 homers. Actually, despite striking out so many times history insists on celebrating how many homers he hit. Many trivia buffs seem to totally gloss over how many times he failed to hit the ball.

You could say that the reason the Great Bambino hit so many homers is that he swung at the ball so many times. The lesson we can learn from the Babe, in any sport, is to keep trying. Not a half-hearted try, not a kinda-sorta-but-we're-gonna-lose-anyway try, but a real honest try. Swing for the bleachers. Aim at the top right corner of that goal, where the keeper will never get it, and crush it. Block out every doubt in your mind and focus all your power on that ball.

Sure, it might sail over the goal and miss by a mile. Who cares? If it goes in one time, nobody will. Who knows, maybe you'll get some kind of cool nickname like the Great Davino or someday some U13 girls soccer team might be practicing the Gourlay move.

—Coach David

Thunderbolts Tie!!!!

Another close game ended in a tie this Saturday. Definitely some great soccer was played by both teams. We had some awesome goals but more importantly we had some great playmakers. 

A lot of emphasis is put on scoring but even plays that don't result in a goal make a big difference. There were a couple of sweet defensive plays that kept the team out of our zone for pretty much the entire first half. Our mid-fielders came up with several key wins that made opportunities for our forwards. 

—Coach David

Big Win and Big Kicks

This weekend's game against Fusion gave us our second win of the season and it felt great! We're playing great soccer and having a lot of fun. It has been awesome too watch the girls come come in to their own individually and as a team.

This week we'll focus on big kicks both on goal and in passing. A great way to create space is with a well timed kick to the open space. We'll work on the fundamentals to create that big kick and think about where it needs to go.

Great soccer Thunderbolts!

—David

Zidane: More than Just Headbutts

UEFA.com has a lot of really cool video on their site. I just watched this one about one of Zidane's "other" moves:

http://www.uefa.com/trainingground/index.html#34001/8388608/751935

I hope I can someday do stuff like that in a game.

—Coach David

Thunderbolts Tie!!!!... Wait, what?

Hey Thunderbolts! Great soccer this Saturday! I was a little bummed that a questionable call at the end of the game cost us the win but it shouldn't get in the way of seeing how awesome we played. In the end, sports games are rarely decided by the referee. Who knows what would have happened if he called it another way.

We played superbly. Eclipse has always given us trouble in the past but we handled them with ease this Saturday. I was especially proud of one of the last plays. Sammy got the ball in the offensive zone, carefully trapped it and then, with steely-eyed concentration, looked up field, found a target and delivered a beautiful cross. Plays like that, excellent goalkeeping, and defense held them off until the end. We can all be proud of that.

I'll see you all Tuesday!

—Coach David

Reminder: Pictures at 9:15AM this Saturday

We've got a busy morning this Saturday. Pictures are at Whitford at 9:15AM. Our game is at 10:30AM at PCC Rock Creek. Things are going to have to go very smoothly in order for us to make it to our game on time. Please have your form filled out and be at Whitford with plenty of time before pictures.

Hopefully pictures and rushing around will warm us up a bit. I don't think we're going to have a lot of time before the game.

—Coach David

ThunderSnacks

I've posted the ThunderSnack schedule here:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcngrmpt_876z3vrkd5

You can also view it by clicking the link in the ThunderLinks area in the side bar.

Thunderbolts Win!!

Beautiful passing, inspired work on the ball, and some amazing shots on goal lead to a 4-1 victory over the Fusion this Saturday. We came out in the first five minutes with fire and passion that set the Fusion on their heels. Great defense along with goal keeping by Pandy and MC kept the pressure on in the offensive zone.

I firmly believe this win had to do with the fire we had in the first five minutes. We showed the Fusion that we meant business. We wanted the ball. When we got it, we had the poise to look for the right play and wait for the moment to pass. When challenged by defenders we held our ground and used some creative footwork to blaze by. That focus and inspired play in the first five minutes gave us the momentum to win.

It was a pleasure to watch. I am very proud of everyone and I am looking forward to practice on Tuesday. I'll see you all there!

—Coach David

New Blog

Hey Thunderbolts!

I thought it might be a good idea if we had a central place for all things Thunder. In addition to emails, I will also be posting stuff here. You can subscribe to the site with RSS and always know when there is an update.

In the end, this might not prove to be useful but I love technology and the internet so I am willing to give anything a try. The more communication the better.

Thanks,

David